1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand tools, and, more particularly to hand held, hand driven tools for fastening and removing fasteners such as nuts and bolts. The present invention tools convert reciprocal hand motion to rotary motion for fastening and removing the fasteners single-handedly. In some embodiments, the tools include supports and second nut attachment capabilities to provide tool stability. This is especially useful for working with wheel lug nuts, wherein the tool is secured from its own undesired rotation by being affixed both to the nut that is being worked on and a second nut that acts as an anchor.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The following prior art is representative of the state of the art in the field of fastener tools:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,137 to John H. Bickford et al. describes a torque wrench that is presented having bidirectional operating capability, accurate readout, and preset or load selection capability. The input drives a pair of ring gears, one of which is connected to the output of the wrench and the other of which is part of a reaction arm system which interacts with the readout and preset features.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,475 to Robert L. Perkins describes a lug nut tool for removing lug nuts from vehicle wheels. The tool includes a casing or body which carries a drive shaft which drives a shaft carrying a socket through a gear transmission. The gear transmission has an uneven number of gears and serves to increase or multiply the torque supplied at the drive shaft. Another spindle shaft is also rotatably mounted in the casing and carries a socket for engaging an adjacent lug nut to secure and stabilize the tool during use. The device can be driven by a manual wrench or other drive such as a power tool or impact tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,310 to Robert F. Michand discloses a torque multiplication device for use in tightening or loosening a nut, lug, bolt head and the like, employing a planetary transmission of sun, planet and orbit gear means which multiplies the applied torque input to produce an output torque to facilitate and simplify such tightening or loosening. Brake means incorporated with the device prevents rotation of the orbit gear means. A modification of the invention discloses an extensible brake arm which has an anchoring socket for securement with another nut, lug, bolt head and the like to likewise prevent rotation of the orbit gear means. Another modification of the invention discloses two sets of sun, planet, and orbit gear means having one common, drive output to produce uniform and balanced drive output. Another modification of the invention discloses a ring-like brake arm having a plurality of anchoring sockets for locking securement with the lugs of a motor-vehicle wheel.
Notwithstanding the prior art, the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.